The OSGeo:UK website has moved

Details of officers, constitution, membership, events and sponsorship activities since 2016 are listed on the new site

Mission

The UK local chapter of OSGeo wishes to establish a focal point for developers and users of open source geospatial software within the UK, for networking and advice, and to raise the profile of open source geospatial development within the UK. It wishes to promote open source geospatial software as a viable choice for all types of user. While it has been suggested that a separate local chapter could better serve the particular geographic and logistical requirements of Scotland, the UK chapter wishes to include all regions and countries within the UK and Ireland. If there is significant interest in forming geographically separate chapters, then the UK chapter will promote these sister organisations, assist with formation and growth, and collaborate in the holding of international events.

See our website at uk.osgeo.org, where you will find a link to our constitution and contact details for the current (as of March 2016) committee members.

Objectives

To provide a forum for discussion and promotion of Open Source Geospatial Software in the UK, and provide networking opportunities for developers and users

To help more UK organisations discover the opportunity of open source geospatial tools, and collate business studies of successful transitions

To raise awareness of the benefits of public access to geodata in the UK by collating links to sources of legitimate free data

In addition we would like to work towards the following:

A fully-featured open access UK SDI

Someday hosting the FOSS4G conference in the UK

Official representative

Jo Cook, Astun Technology

If the majority of chapter members wish, the post of official representative will be elected on a periodic basis.

Links to Case Studies

Please add any appropriate links here

City of Munich move to a completely open source software solution (pdf)

Interview with CIO of Oxford Archaeology on the move towards open source [1]

Not strictly a Case Study, but a useful discussion on the differences between Open Source Business Models in Europe and the US [2]

Actuate Annual Open Source Survey 2008 shows open source is entering the business mainstream in both Europe and the US [3]

The British Transport Police are embracing an open source geospatial business model (pdf)

Publicly Available Geodata

In progress- please contact the mailing list if you have any legitimate free sources of geospatial data that you would like to include

Open Source Tools for Ordnance Survey's products

Mailing List

Meetings and Events

One really useful role of a UK OSGeo chapter would be as a focal point for organising meetings - evening presentation sessions or short seminars with Q and A afterwards.

A Google calendar will be created collecting UK geospatial events.

Past Events

11th March 2009 The Association for Geographic Information (AGI) Technical Special Interest Group are organising an open source event to be held at the British Antarctic Survey HQ in Cambridge. I assume you have to be a member of the AGI to go, but will ask.

22nd June 2009Open Source GIS conference. The local chapter are co-organising this event in conjunction with the University of Nottingham Centre for Geospatial Sciences, which is a great chance to find out what's really happening in open source GIS in the UK. See the website for details and get in touch if you want to be involved.